Our Debt Snowball

It’s quite timely for me to see Dean’s post about being debt-free this morning, as we just made our final payment on our credit card debt last Monday.
We still have a little ways to go, but we are highly motivated right now. I’ve been just devouring as much information as I can get my hands on. I’ve been reading Free and Clear by Howard Deyton of Crown Financial Ministries, listening to Crown’s 30-minute daily show, and most recently, getting on the Dave Ramsey bandwagon. I’ve even decided to teach Dave’s Financial Peace University at Crestview starting in January and I am pumped up about it. I can’t wait to get started helping other folks catch the fever to “Live like no one else so that later, they can live like no one else!”

I think listening to the radio programs everyday has been more helpful than anything else. It’s not just hearing the success stories that motivate me though – it’s the utterly depressing stories of people that are so much worse off than we’ve ever thought about being. Bonnie and I are truly blessed. I have a wonderful job that I absolutely love and the fact that I can get paid at all for doing it is still amazing to me, let alone the fact that I can get paid well for it.

If we can stay on track through the Christmas season, we’ll be paying off our cars within the next three or four months and then we’re attacking my student loans. About the time we pay that off, Bonnie’s will come out of deferment and we’ll start cranking on that. On paper, it looks like two years from now – Christmas 2009 – will be a VERY Merry Christmas for us.

Do NOT GIVE UP! I’m so hating my mortgage payment now. I’m hoping some where in the next 5 years (if things don’t change), we will be completely debt-free. Church – IT – Tarheels – now Dave Ramsey. I knew I liked you!